To find this stockpiling of medications really annoying?

[MindSweeper]

'This medicine was returned by a patient today. Once medicine has left a pharmacy it cannot be reused for safety reasons. All of the inhalers are full. The purple ones alone (all 42 of them) are worth £60 each. That is £2520 worth of medicines that the NHS could be using for something useful'

Medication wastage currently costs the NHS £300,000,000 per year.

It's shocking how much we have to waste in hospitals too, I see how much is destroyed and it makes me think how much good that could do for people in countries who don't have access to meds.

What solutions can you think of?

People are shifting the blame on pharmacists and doctors, but a lot of the time this stockpiling is people just not telling their doctors they're not taking medications, and still ticking the box to receive the med.

I don't think there's data for that, but I suspect that would be a drop in the ocean considering the stringent checks pharmacists have to make.

(Looks in saved mail)

Ah, yes, 2011. And 2012. And 2013 (3 times).

5 occasions when MrsLH prescriptions were wrongly supplied, and had to be thrown away.

I know that because it irked me so much, I grumbled to my MP. Not that it did any good.

It helped us because you can tell straight away if you have had your lunchtime med's etc or not. Also they go back to the pharmacy for refill so they can see your complying, any changes to your med's can be actioned immediately, my surgery amend the doset box there and then for us. Do ask, it can even be delivered and collected, fits through the letter box so no need to stay in either.

I don't get the stockpiling of things like aspirin and paracetamol, I really don't.
So easy to source, and so cheap!

I control mums re ordering so she never stockpiles :)

Meds can cost quite a lot over here (conversely some a lot cheaper than the 8 quid charge in the UK) but people on low incomes can get refunded from the welfare office or the welfare office gives them a paper each month which they can give to their local pharmacy to get their prescriptions free but everyone else has to pay so I'm sure there's less stockpiling issues.

Sorry that was in reply to badders

AND I've had mislabelled meds for my children!
Their initial is the same but not middle name (So basically the school thought I was giving my young son my older sons meds!
I rang and complained. They couldn't have cared less.
I ALWAYS check now before I leave the pharmacy and in fact have started to use boots in the nearest town if it's not urgent.
I've also had potentially dangerous meds px to me by the Drs so it's not great here sadly :(
I double and triple check everything now.

Thanks toasty I will look into it.

We also had a different patient return 110 100mcg durogesic patches once
It is a good job you got them back though as they are even more valuable than £57 for 5 in the wrong hands.

I'm in Scotland and we get free prescriptions, which I'm against, I think if you can pay then you should. Where I live I see smart suited men jumping out of BMW's and being handed free prescriptions, its all wrong. I earn NMW and I'd gladly pay. Different if its something you need every week and you cant afford it, but the amount of people here who could pay and dont have to is all wrong.

Same with the minor illness thingy here. If you need something for a child, calpol, ear drops, cough bottle, etc you get it free at the chemists, sure it wont be actual calpol but a generic one which is the same. You can be a millionaire and get all this free.

There is a charity called Intercare: Medical Aid for Africa
intercare.org.uk

They will take unused mediations, as long as they are still in date. They do have certain restrictions on what they can and can't accept (list in the website) but everything above could have been collected and reused for people who have no option otherwise.

What is frustrating is that it requires a GP surgery or pharmacy to sign up. The meds can then be collected by the charity from there, but they can't collect them from individuals. I have had no luck with the three most recent surgeries that I have been registered with, as they simply don't want the additional hassle,but I did send a vast box of stuff to them at my own expense.

Please consider this charity, for so many good reasons, including saving these life-saving medications from landfill.

I don't think it is the patients fault.My dad takes 18 (yes 18 different meds) and has had been admitted to hospital 4 times within the last 6 months.Each time he has brought all his meds + a list of what they all are in with him.Each time they have prescribed a whole new set despite many of the drugs being exactly the same .

Once again, the problem is (some) people equating "free" with "has no value".

I'm sorry, because it flies in the face of being touchy-feely, but when anything is free, people will abuse it and waste it. Whether it's medicines, housing, water, or healthcare in general.

actually the minor ailment scheme is free all over the UK, I dont think thats right, if you aren't on a low income, unemployed or needing regular prescriptions then you should pay.

I always check my medication before I leave the pharmacy. I take a specific brand, and despite it being written on my prescription they often dispense generic. If I hand it straight back, they can restock it. If i bring it in the next day, in to the bin it goes.

My biggest annoyance is that I only get a 28 day prescription for a drug I have taken for 10 years. And will continue to take every day for the rest of my life. I have to actively order more too, so every 28 days, I have to make one trip to doctors to request repeat prescription (in person) and then another trip to pharmacy a week later to collect tablets. My condition affects my mobility. It's a huge ball ache.

Lurking I did find this, curtesy the Pharmacuetical Journal.

Community pharmacists in the UK make very few errors when dispensing medicines, with an error rate of between 0.01% and 3.32%

But obviously the problem being that's probably not accurate due to not all incidents being reported.

Either way it's going to be relatively low compared to the 50% patient noncompliance rate.

I live in Wales so we get free prescriptions thank goodness. I am on a crazy amount of meds due to having metal work in my pelvis.
I would never stockpile or abuse this system as I'm so grateful for the medication I get for free.
I have a repeat every month and I'm also mildly asthmatic but only use one pump every six months so I regularly reject the pump until needed again. It's not rocket science that this stuff costs a fortune.

I have to make one trip to doctors to request repeat prescription (in person) and then another trip to pharmacy a week later to collect tablets.

Have you got a boots, asda or tesco near by who can deliver to you? Boots sorts all mine out, requests my script and delivers to my door

(if I forget to check before I leave, I just put up with the unpleasantness of the generic, rather than have it thrown away. It does work, just not as well, or as nicely.)

ssp I think the reasoning behind free prescriptions (I'm in Wales) is that lots of people weren't poor enough to get free prescriptions but struggled to afford them, some then ended up in hospital if their condition worsened and ended up costing the NHS a lot more than if they'd just been given a free prescription in the first place.

Unfortunately some people will take advantage.

The limit to a months supply at a time shouldn't apply to everyone. My DH has to take medication every day to stay alive. Sometimes he has to take extra, so sometimes a months supply isn't enough for a month. There is no question about him wasting anything, and all we want is three months supply at a time because it's bad enough having a chronic condition without the added annoyance of constant battle to get an early repeat or trying to pick up the medication in time.

Not all the UK has the minor ailment scheme. We don't have it in East Sussex (sighs).

But yes in response to the OP I work as a nurse and too have seen incredible examples of stockpiled medications. It's incredibly wasteful.

This is absolutely a conversation we need to have, a really important one.

I am wondering whether a prescription charge of £1, you know just enough to make people realise they should value what they are getting, across the board/no exceptions (with prepaid quarterly/annual prescriptions for those who have loads of meds), might stop some of this kind of thing, combined with NO prescriptions for things that are available over the counter.

I am really quite astonished how many requests I get for, say, Sudocrem for baby's bottom. Sudocrem should simply not be available on prescription. If needed for pressure sores or whatever, it could very simply be recommended by a community nurse/tissue viability team and dispensed with some form of recompense for the chemist but no doctor's prescription. Same goes for dressings/catheter supplies/bandages etc etc.

I have had dealings with mislabelled meds - and interestingly, in spite of a computer audit trail that proved were the error was, the patient insisted the error was the doctor's.

Badders, I think being very aware of what you are taking and what it's for and taking an interest in all of that is so vitally important. It's a big part in safe prescribing.

Mind sadly not, and even if I did my doctors will only send the prescription to the local pharmacy. So I would have to go collect it and take it there. Ah, rural living.

When I'm pregnant I have to take take clexane 100. I found out I was pregnant and given 3 months worth of injections but sadly I miscarried and had al these medd ordered.

I went into the pharmacy and said I no longer required the injections (they were still with pharmacy ) and the woman was so shitty. It was packed and she wanted a reason and I burst into tears and said I'd miscarried. She wasn't even moved, just kinda rolled her eyes and said fine.

The pharmacy was packed and I felt so alone and strangely embarrassed.

That's really unfortunate honey. It must be so difficult. Many of my patients wouldnt be able to get their meds without the deliveries

Agree absolutely. We had an elderly friend who would stockpile - I once counted over 60 prescription items in his bathroom, half a dozen each of this and that. Most of them sat there for months gathering dust - until a visiting ex nurse frind disposed of the lot. But another stockpile soon began to grow.
He was on the tight side, and I swear that if he had to pay even a couple of quid for each item - which he could well have afforded to - he would not have kept taking things he didn't need.

And I bet there are so many like this - it's no wonder the NHS is broke.

A Swedish friend told me that in Sweden everybody pays for prescriptions - even her dad who was over 90 and not well off. There is however an annual cap of a certain amount - not an awful lot - for those who need a lot of medication.

And this is Sweden, which is popularly supposed to be a socialist Utopia. She told me that everyone pays for visits to the GP and A &E, too - maybe children are exempt, I forget.